Microsoft PowerPoint update will help spice up your boring presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint
(Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft is working on an update for PowerPoint that will give users ever greater creative freedom when it comes to presentation design.

According to new entries in the company’s product roadmap, PowerPoint will soon allow organizations to add their own custom fonts to presentations. The information is sparse, but presumably these custom fonts will be made available to all employees, once set.

The feature will first be made available via PowerPoint Online next month, and arrive for the Windows and Mac clients in March and June, respectively.

PowerPoint presentations

Although PowerPoint has long been the default presentation software for many businesses, the market has become much more competitive in recent years, and all the more so as a result of the rise of remote working.

In the face of increasingly stiff competition from the likes of Prezi and Google Slides, Microsoft has pushed out a range of improvements and integrations designed to cement its position.

For example, Microsoft 365 customers can now launch PowerPoint presentations from directly within Teams, the company’s popular collaboration platform. Known as PowerPoint Live, the feature eliminates the perilous practice of screen sharing, which has been responsible for various gaffes over the years.

Even more recently, Microsoft rolled out a recording studio for PowerPoint, which allows users to practice their presentations in advance. The idea is that reviewing the footage will help people hone their delivery and identify any areas in need of improvement.

The latest update, meanwhile, covers off the presentation design process, which is as equally important as rehearsal and execution. Although the introduction of custom fonts may appear comparatively insignificant, the update will allow businesses to establish consistency across their brand, which will be particularly useful when presenting to partners, investors and the like.

Alternatively, the facility could be used to add a bit of color and personality to otherwise bland presentations, which is always welcome.

Joel Khalili
News and Features Editor

Joel Khalili is the News and Features Editor at TechRadar Pro, covering cybersecurity, data privacy, cloud, AI, blockchain, internet infrastructure, 5G, data storage and computing. He's responsible for curating our news content, as well as commissioning and producing features on the technologies that are transforming the way the world does business.